"What does this even mean?" Lara returned to put a serious look on her face, "and why are you here in the first place?"
"I invited him," Larry said, "after all, you are going to leave the family and city in the upcoming days. We need someone capable, someone we all trust, so he can lead us when you are absent."
"..." Lara didn't speak, turned at once towards Stark. The latter seemed a bit startled by what was going on here. And without the need to ask anything, it seemed a grand scheme was going on here.
"It's not against the family's rules," Larry evilly smirked, "the elder council alongside the consultants can appoint a temporary leader when the leader is absent for any reason."
"That's why you invited the consultant members as well?!" Lara moved her eyes around, looking at all the faces who were attending this meeting as if they were just traitors.
"Well… If you decided to stay behind, not travel out while having lots of our portal cores, then none of this will continue," Richard said in a way that made William feel like he meant ill towards him.
William gazed up and down at this young man. He didn't recall meeting him before.
"No, I'm going out," Lara looked at Richard in a challenging way, "and don't get used to my seat. Once I'm back, you'll crawl back to the hole you came from."
"Hmph, good luck on that trip then," Richard said as if he was wishing bad luck to befall her or something. William from the side noticed something else.
The way this young man spoke, the way he looked confident, gave William the impression that he knew something, something related to a scheme or something.
"Now, as we are all here, let's speak about our top priority issue," Larry was on the side of Richard of course. And it seemed this elder arranged everything for Richard to replace Lara in her absence.
William didn't know why Lara didn't speak or object to any of that. If it was him, then he'd not let the matter go without doing little problems. For example, she could look for another figure from the family, and make him compete with Richard. But Lara simply accepted this trap without fighting back.
Lara didn't see any value in wasting her effort and time over this. She knew the rules of the family quite well. And once she'd return from this adventure, she'd reclaim her position as the head of the family.
Unlike what William expected, she decided to bid her time and wait until she'd return back from that trip. Then she'd turn Richard's future life into hell, paying back what he did here to her in many folds.
"We already discussed this before," Lara might have closed an eye over Richard's issue, as this followed the family's rules after all. But against the persistent attempts of Larry to speak again about William's offer and deal, she was ready to start a war even.
"I already said…"
"You got no power here, elder Larry," Lara crossed her arms, while the ones on her side from the elder's circle gave Larry a glaring look, "this issue is already decided in the elder's council."
"But many elders…"
"Many elders can suck it and close their mouths," elder Stark who kept silent all this time finally spoke up, "this isn't an elder council, but a mix of elders and consultants. The decision was taken, and there is no way for anyone to argue about it."
"Elder Stark this…"
"I said suck it up! If anyone had an issue, why didn't they speak up back then?" Elder Stark seemed to grow tired and sick of Larry's hideous and underhanded methods. He was sure most of the elders agreed with excitement over William's proposal before. But Larry must have done something to make them change their stance.
Larry played by the book in pushing Richard on such a stage before, but he wasn't doing the same in the matter regarding William. Stark also played by the book here and cut the path over Larry to have what he desired.
"You have to listen to logic… If the elders aren't satisfied, then…"
"Then they should only blame themselves," Lara didn't hide away and joined this heated debate between elders, "my family elders are strong and courageous. If they got an opinion before, they'd have said it out loud. Leaning to such methods only tarnishes our image, elder."
"..."
The entire place started to get filled with lots of discussions. And before anyone would say another word, Lara turned to her grand uncle.
"Here, we already signed this contract," Stark got what she meant by that look, took two scrolls out, handed them over to William.
eαglesnovel`c,om "You'll get half of the city like us, share total control over it with us. At the same time, you have the privilege to purchase any number of materials we accumulated from that place. You just need to file a request, and we'll agree on it in one week. As for the products we'll make by your formulas and blueprints, you'll get half of the entire profit. Profit will be calculated once per month, and the money will be delivered to you or to anyone you specify…"
The elder kept speaking about the terms of this contract, while William read through its content. This was like the final blow prepared by Lara and elder Stark towards everyone on Larry's and Richard's side. Like this, there was no point in arguing anymore. And he now understood why these two acted this tough and confident before when facing the claims of Larry.
William took his time in reading the contract, while taking a look from time to time towards Richard and Larry.
It was clear that the elder council didn't just agree on his demands, but they also formulated everything in the form of this contract. This meeting was just a show to finalise everything, a show that showed much to the keen eyes of William.
He was now sure this family wasn't going to keep good ties with him as long as Lara wasn't here. And for a reason, he felt like something bad was about to happen to her on this trip.
